News

UAE Is Ready To Test New Face ID Technology In Service Delivery

Published

6 years ago

February 22, 2021

uae is ready to test new face id technology in service delivery

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It looks like UAE citizens won’t be required to identify themselves using government-issued documents in the near future. The country’s government has decided to greenlight an official trial of a new facial recognition technology (face ID technology) to further develop the services provided by the private and government sectors alike.

The decision was made at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, which was chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai. “In a meeting today, we have approved a facial recognition technology to verify the identity of individuals instead of submitting a lot of documents,” tweeted His Highness.

If the initial trial turns out successful, the ministry will expand the use of the facial recognition technology and support the launch of a related set of services in some private sector institutions.

Besides being convenient and efficient, citizen identification using face ID technology could also help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and other infectious diseases. Similar contactless identification solutions are currently being deployed across airports, banks, and private businesses.

The Cabinet also approved the National Standards Manual for Statistical Data to provide a unified framework for the collection, processing, storage, and presentation of statistical data. The goal here is to ensure a high level of quality in all statistical activities, which play an essential role in supporting important governmental decisions.

Also Read: Dubai Police Use Futuristic Technology To Read Murder Suspect’s Mind

The manual covers eight basic topics: economic statistics, social and demographic statistics, education statistics, employment statistics, environment statistics, buildings and housing units statistics, and administrative divisions of each emirate.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Cabinet reviewed a study dealing with the prevention of mental and physical disabilities and reducing the mortality rate among children by performing premarital screenings for genetic diseases. According to the study, premarital genetic tests can reliably predict the risk of developing genetic diseases.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.